Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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996. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government following the announcement of the social inclusion and community activation programme (SICAP) budgets for April to December 2015, the reason the total amount of money allocated to County Meath is just €278,304, when a comparable county in population and socio-economic demographics such as County Kildare is due to receive €765,170; the way this figure for County Meath which is the lowest allocation in the State was reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41158/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My Department’s Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) is the largest social inclusion intervention of its kind in the State. The current Programme officially ended at the end of 2013 having operated for four years with funding of €281m over that period.  It is being implemented on a transitional basis for 2014 with a budget of €47m pending the roll out of the new Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) in April 2015.The SICAP is one of my key priorities. The Programme’s target groups are:

- Children and Families from Disadvantaged Areas

- Lone Parents

- New Communities (including Refugees/Asylum Seekers)

- People living in Disadvantaged Communities

- People with Disabilities

- Roma

- The Unemployed (including those not on the Live Register)

- Travellers

- Young Unemployed People from Disadvantaged areas

In allocating resources in the prevailing stringent budgetary situation, I was particularly conscious of the need to support funding levels for the LCDP and SICAP and to ensure that resources were allocated in the fairest way possible and to make the maximum contribution to job creation and economic recovery.

The Department’s intention is, over time, to use our knowledge of population levels and disadvantage to ensure that we target available resources on areas of greatest need. As a tool to assist with this, a Resource Allocation Model (RAM) has been developed. In order to achieve the objective of moving towards allocating resources according to this model, the Department has in recent years worked to ensure that funding for those areas which this RAM shows have greatest needs are protected, where possible, and thus move towards achieving a fairer share of resources. In deciding on funding allocations for SICAP, this principle was used. While, overall , the SICAP allocations were lower in some instances than those for LCDP, Meath was protected from this reduction. The RAM , underpinned by the Pobal/HAASE Deprivation Index, which is used in relation to allocations, allows funds to be allocated in a manner which means that a disadvantaged person in any area of the country will have equality of resources available to their areas to support their needs.